Orthorexia Nervosa... What The?

Posted on Apr 20, 2015

OK, let’s see what we’ve got here. Orthorexia Nervosa, a term coined by an American doctor called Stephen Bratman.

In a nutshell, he’s saying that eating healthily is a disorder due to the stress and anxiety it creates. There are also suggestions that eating healthily damages your relationships and alienates those around you, especially if they’re fat, and like to eat pizza without the guilt of your angelic abstinence staring them in the face.

We see his point… not really, we can see how he’s arrived at this conclusion (dubious scientific methodology aside) but how far up the wrong tree do you want to bark Dr Bratman?

Another important point to bear in mind, this was first brought to our attention via a Daily Mail article, something we’d usually ignore quite happily. However, they’ve pushed the borders of reality a tad too far on this occasion.

The raw food crew in particular gets a good kick in, but is it really a crime or a disorder to care about what you put in your body?

Is that not where everything starts? Does it not have a knock on effect to quality of life, performance, mental and physical well being? Are there not ethical and environmental considerations to make?

Dr Bratman makes the statement ‘Rather than eat my sprouts (or kale) alone, it would be better for me to share a pizza with some friends.’

Yes, Dr Bratman, it would be nice for you to have some friends but what in the name of Freud has that got to do with the food you eat? Do you need to follow the herd and eat like everyone else to feel included, to feel involved, to feel loved?

Sorry, too many questions, we better get on and say what we’re saying.

The relationship we have with food should primarily be physiological. What kind of nourishment will this food item provide my body or, will it be causing damage to my body and its metabolic functions? It’s a great question to ask before you eat. Especially if you’re prone to eating for reward and a dopamine hit as opposed to eating for the aforementioned nourishment.

Then make the choice, it’s your choice, whatever you want to do - but know there will be consequences to your choices. Perhaps not to every choice, but each individual choice you make will count towards the bigger jigsaw puzzle that is your health, your body. Of which you only get one and then you die, perhaps to come back again, perhaps to live with a bearded guy in a cloud or perhaps to vanish from existence all together forever and ever.

If you do only have one shot at life, is your enjoyment and happiness really based around a chemically altered, sugar and salt coated cheese fest, that will make you ooze hydrogenated vegetable oil from your pores for 48hrs. If yes, then get on with it. If you’d rather have a kale and sprout stir fry then steer your stinky ass away from us too.

But Dr Bratman, stop telling us what we are and what we’re not. We have free will and a mind to make educated choices based on our own experiences and the feedback from our bodies. If we choose to eat healthily because we care about our quality of life, then far from having a disorder, we’re actually doing the world a favour. We can empathise with your battle against Bulimia, but you’ve clearly not returned to a healthy, balanced, objective relationship with food. Please don’t use your time and expertise to create a new neurosis for a society that already has far too many.